I store my rips in FLAC (lossless formats are gapless) then convert them to Lame-MP3 to place on the iPod. Since iPod added firmware for "real" gapless (previously they used an awful cross-fading technique), my tracks have played gaplessly without a need to re-rip. Before my iPod, I used a Rio Karma which supported gapless out of the box, so my digital collection has been fairly stable from the start. I don't buy downloads in other proprietary formats--only DRM free MP3, so I have not had an issue similar to yours with ATRAC.

I use a program called dBpoweramp to rip music and one of the options is to remove silence from the beginning and end of a track, so that may be what iTunes uses to determine if a track is gapless or not. You can also use it to convert one format to another and perform the same function.

From Apple's site, however, it looks like the iPod photo does not support gapless playback, so there may not be an easy solution to Marvin's problem with his sister's iPod. The other option is to rip multiple tracks as one or join tracks. An app like Audacity can help with that in some cases after the fact. iTunes allows you to join tracks on import and dBpoweramp has a "rip as one" option.

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"A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession." -- Albert Camus

From Apple's site, however, it looks like the iPod photo does not support gapless playback, so there may not be an easy solution to Marvin's problem with his sister's iPod. The other option is to rip multiple tracks as one or join tracks. An app like Audacity can help with that in some cases after the fact. iTunes allows you to join tracks on import and dBpoweramp has a "rip as one" option.

Thanks for the link beclemund. After reading up on the apple ipod it seems that the ipod photo my sister has is not suited for my needs...unless I merge all tracks from a cd before importing, in which case I do not have the option of buying operas on-line. Those gaps are completely unacceptable for operas (especially for Wagner and Verdi)...... but since my sister is not into classical music its not an issue to her. I guess my Sony cd player will have to do for now and unfortunately I won't be downloading any music in the near future.

Mark

Yes, if possible. You could download the complete CD without the gaps, or with them as they were intended. Most players play the ape format don't they?

Most plays do APE? Er, no. Most players do MP3 and WMA, some also do OGG and FLAC ... but I know of no player that does APE natively. Even Rockbox doesn't seem to support the format. Although, if you have one of the players which can take Rockbox, you're laughing - gapless playback is a feature of it.

As to sites selling CDs as single files, I know of two: eClassical has an Entire Works section offering a very small selection of recordings, while for historical performances, you can go to Classical Music Mobile, where all works are ripped/encoded as single files, each costing just a single Euro, irrespective of duration.

Most plays do APE? Er, no. Most players do MP3 and WMA, some also do OGG and FLAC ... but I know of no player that does APE natively. Even Rockbox doesn't seem to support the format. Although, if you have one of the players which can take Rockbox, you're laughing - gapless playback is a feature of it.

I meant media players on the computers. You can then convert them to file format of your choice. I've once (by miracle?) used CueSplitter to split the big file into mp3's somehow

I put rockbox on my player btw. But mostly for the extras: You know, Sudoku, Tetris and the like

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As to sites selling CDs as single files, I know of two: eClassical has an Entire Works section offering a very small selection of recordings, while for historical performances, you can go to Classical Music Mobile, where all works are ripped/encoded as single files, each costing just a single Euro, irrespective of duration.